Here's a way that I found effective in involving young people in the liturgical rhythm of the Lenten and Easter seasons. Just before Ash Wednesday, I gathered my small youth group at my house to begin making a series of banners for Lent. Being a small, impoverished country church, we had no budget for this project, so I found coarse dark cloth, construction paper, and various other materials and doodads in the rummage closet. We based the banner themes on the the "last sayings" of Christ. I used the order of sayings according to the Dubois cantata, The Seven Last Words of Christ.
I found the different sayings in the gospels, read them to the youth, and encouraged them to create a design for each saying. (For instance, for the first saying, "Father, forgive them; they do not realize what they are doing," they cut out an outstretched arm and hand with a nail through it. For another, they cut out a crown of thorns. I encouraged them to come up with the designs without my help. It was delightful to watch them discover that they were, indeed, creative, and that they could do something to enhance the worship experience for the adults in their church.
We carefully stored these banners and waited to hang them one by one in the sanctuary. We hung the first one on Ash Wednesday, and the others (the youth took turns hanging them) on the Sundays in Lent. By Holy Week, all seven banners were hanging in the sanctuary.
We hung them along the altar rail and on the pulpit. We also saved some of the dark cloth to place over the altar table in front of the pulpit, and arranged different objects on it that represented Christ's suffering. (A sea shell with a smudge of red on it reminded someone of the wounds of Christ. Someone else brought a branch from a thorn bush. Someone else thought a small purple blanket looked like a purple robe that Romans would use.)
During Holy Week we made a white table cloth and banner, again using material from the rummage closet. This time they designed a scene with an empty tomb and sunrise. All week we gathered silk lilies and dogwood from anyone who would donate them. On Easter Sunday morning, we blew up balloons.
When the time came for the morning worship service, one of the youth read the resurrection passage in Matthew 28. As he read Jesus' words, "Do not be afraid," the pastor (who was also the organist) began playing "Christ the Lord is Risen Today."
As the congregation sang, the youth and children practically frolicked down the aisles carrying lilies, dogwoods, and the white banner and altar cloth.
They ripped down the Lenten banners, moved the Lenten objects off the altar table, put up the Easter "paraments", laid the flowers on the altar, and tied the balloons wherever they could find to anchor them in the altar area.
Later I heard from several of the adults that the youth's participation that season had made the whole Easter event more meaningful. One of the youth said, "Now I understand what it's about." That was enough for me.
-from the 1998 Seeds Lenten worship packet. This activity first took place in the Bible Methodist Church in Shamrock, Texas.